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Cree sniper finally gained recognition for his exploits decades after the Great War

PHOTO: Larry Wong, Edmonton JournalDutchie Anderson, a member of the Fort Saskatchewan Legion, holds a framed photo of Henry Norwest at the memorial cenotaph outside the Legion hall. Norwest was a First World War Metis marksman who was born in Fort Saskatchewan and killed in action.

Henry Louis Norwest, a young Cree ranch hand from the Fort Saskatchewan area, became one of the most famous snipers of the First World War, with 115 confirmed kills and a medal for bravery.

Despite the impressive record, it wasn’t until 90 years later that Norwest was finally recognized in Fort Saskatchewan, where his memory now has central place of pride, thanks to Legion officials.

Norwest joined the Canadian Army in late 1915 and a few months later arrived on the bloody battlefields of France. He quickly impressed officers with his sharpshooting skills. He could sit still for hours, hide in muddy place, search out an enemy sniper or machine gun nest, and shoot with deadly, devastating accuracy.

During the 1917 battle at Vimy Ridge, Canada’s first major victory, Norwest earned the Military Medal for bravery. He showed “great bravery, skill and initiative” and “saved a great number of our men’s lives,” according to the medal citation.

Later, he was also awarded a bar, making him one of the roughly 830 members of the Canadian Expeditionary Force to be awarded this double honour, according to Veterans Affairs records.

Marilyn Buffalo, Norwest’s great-granddaughter, heard stories of her great-grandfather when she was in her teens. The tales were told by her grandmother, Harriet Buffalo, one of Norwest’s three children and a longtime Edmonton resident, who finally opened up about her father in the 1960s.

“Grandmother told me the story of the moment the handsome man in a uniform, her dad, came to say goodbye. He gave his three children a big hug and left,” said Marilyn.

Marilyn Buffalo, great granddaughter to war veteran Henry Norwest, with a pair of framed war medals that belonged to him.Larry Wong, Edmonton Journal

They never saw their father again. The children ended up in orphanage at Ermineskin residential school, after their father died on the battlefield and their mother died of tuberculosis not long after.

The family somehow managed to hang onto Norwest’s official photo, military medals and their memories of the handsome soldier.

When Fort Saskatchewan Legion officials learned of Norwest’s story and his ties to their community, they put his name on the cenotaph and named the canteen and local field of honour after him in 2010.

“He’d been ignored for 90 years, so we had to make up for that,” said Legion past-president Dutchy Enders.

Marilyn Buffalo is proud of the recognition offered by the Legion to her great-grandfather’s memory and the Buffalo family walks in the Legion parade each Remembrance Day.

“It’s awesome what they’ve done,” Buffalo said.

A memorial plaque for Henry Norwest at Fort Saskatchewan Cemetery. Norwest was a First World War Metis marksman who was born in Fort Saskatchewan and killed in action.Larry Wong, Edmonton Journal

By all accounts, Norwest was well-liked and appreciated by his fellow soldiers who nicknamed him “Ducky,” said James Dempsey, a University of Alberta historian.

“There was a story about the soldiers going to a bar in France and a girl took an interest in him. But he ducked out to avoid the situation.”

On Aug. 18, 1918, just three months before the war’s end, Norwest’s luck ran out.

The Allies were making a last push to take Amiens and Norwest asked to join the attack rather than be sent behind enemy lines, according to Dempsey’s account.

With deadly accuracy, Norwest disabled machine gun posts, killed German snipers who were also looking for him, and was an immense help to the troops in the fierce battle, said Dempsey.

As Norwest was looking for a sniper’s lair, he took a fatal bullet from a German sniper. He was buried in a church yard in France.

At first, the Canadian Army discouraged recruiting of native soldiers. But officers quickly saw that many natives who lived as hunters could handle a gun, unlike young men from cities, said Dempsey.

When natives joined the army, mostly the infantry, they became Canadian citizens and had the right to vote in the 1917 election. They lost those citizenship rights when they were discharged and went back to reserves, said Dempsey.

In the end, about 4,000 natives joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force that fought under British command, said Dempsey. That was the highest enlistment rate of any ethnic group. Many natives and Métis were motivated by a long-standing allegiance to the Crown with whom they had recently signed treaties, said Dempsey. For others, it was a way to regain the warrior ethic that was still alive, especially in the west where natives had more recently been put on reserves.

Norwest was born in 1884, the year before the Riel rebellion, and would have grown up on stories of the great warriors in that last resistance, said Dempsey.

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